Tax research

It is always difficult to get the Supreme Court to review a case, but this seems especially true for tax cases. The recent court term just ended proved to be no exception. Of several cases practitioners were hoping that the court would accept, only one received a grant of certiorari in the closing days of the term.It is the decisions for which the court grants certiorari where the fight, and the hope, goes on. It is, however, in the cases with respect to which certiorari is denied where taxpayers must finally face the facts or explore other remedies.

Fewer taxpayers took advantage of the Internal Revenue Service's free electronic tax return filing service in 2007 than in previous years, according to a new audit report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.Moreover, the audit identified multiple calculation errors made by the commercial software of Free File Alliance firms.

The Internal Revenue Service outlined the steps it plans to take to close the approximately $290 billion tax gap by encouraging more people and businesses to voluntarily pay what they owe the government, but it still faces an uphill battle.

The American Institute of CPAs scored a victory this week in convincing House lawmakers to remove a provision in the Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007 that it feared could jeopardize the business of CPAs in farming communities.

Representatives of private equity firms, hedge funds and other types of investment firms fought back against proposals to raise taxes on their incomes, telling the Senate Finance Committee that critics have misconceptions about their industry.

The National Society of Accountants is protesting an obscure new tax-reporting standard that it complains flew "under the radar" when it was stealthily inserted into an unrelated piece of Congressional legislation.

Two CPA firms on California's central coast have announced a merger: Bianchi, Lorincz, Huey, Hudson & Co. and Kasavan & Pope.

Grant Thornton CEO Edward E. Nusbaum has worked with the firm for 28 years, but since he took over the helm, the Chicago-based firm has more than doubled its revenue in the last four years, reaching $940 million in 2006.

The Internal Revenue Service has established new electronic filing rules that it hopes will help quickly identify fraud schemes such as phishing.

You might be surprised what qualifies as an unforeseen circumstance for the partial exclusion of gain on the sale of a personal residence. Under this special rule, taxpayers are allowed to exclude gain up to a reduced maximum exclusion amount under Section 121(c) if the sale is due to a change in place of employment, health, or unforeseen circumstances even though it was used for less than two of the five preceding years as the personal residence.

Three academics from the U.K. who have written a book about auditing, and a Virginia professor who has developed a taxation education curriculum, will receive awards from Deloitte & Touche’s not-for-profit Deloitte Foundation.

The Internal Revenue Service named Linda Stiff as the replacement for outgoing Acting Commissioner Kevin M. Brown.

Accounting firm Lovoy, Summerville & Shelton has acquired Granberry & Associates, allowing the firm to expand its client base beyond its home town of Birmingham to Granberry's turf in the Auburn-Opelika area of Alabama.

The Internal Revenue Service has granted relief to some homeowners struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf area in August 2005 so they can continue to qualify for a low-income housing credit.

Following on the heels of his former boss, Internal Revenue Service Acting Commissioner Kevin M. Brown plans to leave the IRS in mid-September to become chief operating officer of the American Red Cross.

Nearly 55,000 tax-exempt organizations owed close to $1 billion in unpaid payroll and other federal taxes as of last September, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office.

CCH has appointed Gene McGovern as vice president of tax and accounting publishing, replacing Catherine Wolfe, who was named U.K. CEO of the publisher's parent company, Wolters Kluwer, earlier this year.

Remember the old days? Forms shipped off to service bureaus? Is it possible that manual data entry will seem as quaint within a few years?

After the release of a stinging report criticizing the Internal Revenue Service for shutting down the TeleFile program, leading members of the Senate Finance Committee lashed out at the IRS's decision.

Accounting firm BDO Seidman saw its revenue increase $31 million to $589 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007.